Thursday, June 4, 2015

Scythes' Space Marines

The Scouts may be the most numerous of members of my Scythes of the Emperor, but the graduated Space Marines are the backbones. Going with the theme that either they are rookies or veterans, my Scythes have two squads of Sternguard Veterans and one squad of regular Marines.

This is the regular squad. They tend to ride in a rhino transport. Why a multi-melta? Cheaper than a lascannon and still good at putting a wound on a Tyranid monster. Usually don't have to worry too much about range. The bugs tend to help you out there just fine. The Sergeant has a power pick for a weapon. I claim it as an axe ahead of time. The pick was a nasty anti-armor weapon back in medieval times. So, it fits just fine with the armor piercing of a power axe.

You can also see redeemed Lamenters amongst the unit. As the Scythes were assigned to oversee the Penance of the Lamenters following the Badab War; the Lamenters suffered heavily during the Kraken invasion. With the overall decimation of the Scythes Chapter, any surviving Lamenters amongst the Scythes number deemed vindicated were incorporated into the existing Chapter. I am sure the Inquisition will have questions regarding this action. Yet, it can be easier to ask forgiveness than permission considering the situation the Scythes current face. At the least, his gene seed may not be saved if it ever comes to it.

The first of two Sternguard squads is displayed above. The squad is made up of a mix of metal and plastic Marines. This squad has combi-meltas and a heavy flamer from a Terminator. The Veteran Sergeant is equipped with Lightning Claws. Usually deployed via drop pod into the middle of the enemy to draw them away from the front lines and to just cause as much damage as possible. There are only nine guys in the squad as a character sometimes deploys with them. They are great for chewing up Tyranid Warriors. The unit has successfully been used to alpha strike a Hive Tyrant leading to a complete disorganization of a Tyranid assault.

The last Space Marine unit is the heavy weapon Sternguard. I will combat squad this unit with the heavy weapons staying behind leaving the Veteran Sergeant and comrades to provide forward cover. It's also not too difficult to simply leave them all combined and shoot Kraken rounds too. It's difficult to see, but there are also a couple of comb-plasmas in here as well. I know it is not a standard use of the unit, but again, I play more for fluff.

Many of the plastic figures are modified to have service studs on their shoulder pads. The pads were made with Testors putty filled across the entire face then left to dry overnight then sanded smooth. With a pen, I chose several locations for the studs to go and lightly drilled into the putty with a pin vise. The studs themselves are tiny silica beads. You tend to get them with items shipped in boxes. I left a dollop of super glue on piece of paper, using a toothpick, I put a touch of the glue into the drilled hole. The silica bead was then carefully pressed into the hole.

Some of the battle damage was a result of the pin vise drilling and the putty chipping off on the shoulder pads. Other was created by simply hitting the model with a file. Since the figures were primed in white and then yellow over the top, the file tends to show the white primer and the grey of the plastic underneath. This looks best on the black armor locations.

Each of the figures are individual with alternating color schemes and decal usage. Normally I make my Marines uniform per squad. Each one using the same numeration and symbols. Since many of the Veteran Scythes survived the Hivefleet attack, the disciplined rules are a bit more lax.

Now being colorblind, I never knew the lining I did on the yellow was red. I originally thought I grabbed the brown micron pen. It wasn't until the Necronomicon Tournament that I was told, 'I like how you used the red for the lining.' Aww, crap! Even still I can't tell it's red.

Thanks Tael. You're a real inspiration! Jamie, just stopped by your site as well. Lots of good stuff there, with links too. You've given me some future ideas. When do we get to see yours? http://scythesoftheemperor40kchapter.blogspot.com